


Spill The Secrets To The Russian Girl, Steve, You Idiot

by speckynerdyfucknut



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: F/M, It starts pretty slow I'm sorry, More characters and tags to come, Slow Burn, it's post season 2, it's third person but let's be honest
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-13
Updated: 2018-01-02
Packaged: 2019-02-14 11:08:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,776
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13006503
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/speckynerdyfucknut/pseuds/speckynerdyfucknut
Summary: Iskra and Steve used to be best buds, but Steve bitch slapped Iskre in the feelings. Now it's four years later and he show at at her door with Mike and bleeding Eleven and begs for help. Soon a new plot is revealed, and more secrets come out. The Secrets of Hawkins Labs, Steve's, and Iskra's.





	1. chapter 1

There was banging at the door. Iskra opened her eyes, realizing she’s fallen asleep over her homework again. The banging continued. 

“Ice! Iskra!” A familiar voice yelled from outside. “I know you’re in, open the god damned door!” It belonged to Steve Harrington. The same one she haven’t spoken to since 1979. 

“What the hell.” She murmured, and walked to the door. She opened them, interrupting Steve mid-shout. At first she was surprised at how tall he’s grown. She saw him at school, on basketball court, in the coffee shop slash comic book store she worked at, but standing a foot away was apparently different. He smelled nice, she noticed, and reprimanded herself for it in her head. Then from the dark came the real surprise: Mike Wheeler with a bleeding girl on his back.

“Mike… you’ve gotten tall.” Iskra said, dumbfounded, and immediately wanted to smack herself.

“Is that what you call help?!” Mike half yelled. “A girl from the AV club?!”

“From the AV club?” Steve asked. “No, her mom was a nurse.” He turned to Iskra. “You have to help her, your mum used to teach you first help, right?” Iskra looked at the girl, a huge, ragged wound on her exposed calf.

“Take her to the fucking hospital, Steve, what the hell?”

“No!” Both boys yelled. Iskra opened her mouth to explain that this kind of wound is no joking matter, but Steve interrupted before she could speak.

“She can’t go to the hospital, you can’t ask why, and you have to help. Right now.” The girl on Mike’s back whimpered quietly and whispered something.

“Yeah, let’s just go look for Hopper.” Mike said to Steve, but he kept looking at Iskra.

“No.” She said. “Come in. I’ll do it.” Mike tried to protest, but Steve shut him up with a look and a nod towards the door. “Everyone in, shut up. Steve, take them to the upstairs bathroom, I’ll get the first aid kit.” She ushered them in and went to get the supplies, trying to calm down, repeating what she needed to do. “Clean it, make sure there’s nothing inside, antiseptic, sew it up, antiseptic, gauze, bandage.” She murmured like a mantra, rummaging through the kitchen. Fortunately, the house was fully stocked in medical supplies. “Needle, thread, bactine, gauze, isopropyl, ice, I need ice…” Steve came down the stairs.

“Can you hurry up a bit? She’s bleeding.” He asked the air next to Iskra’s head.

“Get me ice.” She said to the ether, passing the boy, and went up to the bathroom. “I need everyone calm and focused.” Iskra took a clean towel and spread it on the floor. Then she dropped the packed needle and thread, gauze and bandages on it.

“Mike, wash your hands, hot water and soap, and open all of these. You” She turned to the girl. “What’s your name?” The girl didn’t answer, instead looked at Mike, who nodded.

“Jane.” She said, quietly. 

“Jane.” Iskra repeated, in her best soothing voice. “You’re going to be fine. I know what I’m doing.” She did. Kind of. She looked more closely at the wound, putting on latex gloves. It wasn’t a single cut, but two, about an inch apart, and four inches long. The edges were a little uneven and blood was oozing out, but it didn’t look like any major arteries have been cut. The skin around the wound was red and filthy. “Let’s do this.”  
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

“Are you sure she’s gonna be ok?” Mike asked for the hundredth time. He was holding Jane’s hand while Iskra was finishing bandaging up her calf with shaking hands and clenched jaw. The heavy smell of antiseptic was in the air. “Is she? You said she’ll be fine. Are the stitches going to hold?” Jane was quiet, sweaty, pale, exhausted by the pain and blood loss. Her eyes were closed. “Is it going to get infected? Hey. Can she walk?” Steve got queasy when he was helping put gentle pressure around the wound while Iskra was sewing, and now sat on the edge on the tube, looking at the ceiling and breathing deeply. His deep breaths contrasted with Jane’s shallow ones. “Hey, didn’t she lose too much blood? She looks so weak. Maybe we should have tried to find Hopper. Isn’t that not enough bandage? Is it gonna slip off?”

“Mike, shut the hell up, I beg you.” Iskra said, her tongue numb, taking off her gloves and throwing them next to the rest of the bloody mess on the floor. She did her best, but the hardest part was not letting the cuts get infected. With how filthy they were, it was very possible. “Jane, are you awake?”. The girl opened her eyes and nodded slightly. “Cold.” She whispered.

“Let’s get you to bed. Steve, will you carry her?”

“I can carry her.” Mike immediately volunteered.

“I’m still stronger, tiger. Let’s go.” Steve said, gently picking the girl up. She let him, still holding onto Mike’s hand. Iskra led the three of them to her room, where Steve laid Jane on the bed. Iskra put a couple of pillows under her leg, elevating it, and covered her up with a duvet. 

“I’ll get you some water, Ibuprofen, and maybe I’ll find some antibiotic. Mike, stay with her.” That didn’t need to be said. “Steve, with me?”  
They went down to the kitchen. Iskra put on a kettle, sat down at the table and put her face in her hands. She sighed, trying to release the tension that built inside of her, but without success. Steve stood at the entrance to the kitchen, awkwardly, not knowing whether he should help or what to do. They stayed like this for a long minute.

“So… your dad isn’t home?” He finally broke the silence with the first thing that came to mind.

“No.” Iskra stood up and went over to a cabinet. She opened it up, took out four mugs and started putting teabags into each.

“Is he coming back?” 

“Not for hours.” The tension was palpable. They used to know each other, but a lot changes in four years. Last they spoke, Iskra’s mother was alive, Steve wasn’t the King of High School. She was taller than him, he just got on the basketball team. She had a crush on him, he agreed meekly when his father insulted her. Now… well, a lot has changed.

The sound of the whistle startled them. Iskra poured water into the mugs, filled a glass with water from the tap, got Ibuprofen and antibiotics, and they went back upstairs. Jane was already asleep, but Iskra woke her up to give her the antibiotics and painkillers. She fell back asleep in seconds. Mike was trying to get through to anyone on his walkie-talkie. Iskra put her hand on Jane’s forehead. She was running a low fever, but the older girl didn’t think it was alarming yet.

“Do you want to call your parents? On the phone?” Iskra offered. “Or her parents? Or you said something about Chief Hopper? Anyone who isn’t a child or a Steve?”

“I’m very responsible and an adult.” Steve said under his breath, gaining nobody’s attention.

“I already tried Hopper, he’s not picking up. I’ll keep trying.” Mike looked at Steve and Iskra with a look that said they should leave.

“Um, okay. Feel free. There are some more blankets in that drawer.” Iskra pointed to a chest of drawers under a window. “We’ll, I guess, be downstairs if you need anything.” She said and left, expecting Steve to follow, but he stayed. Iskra went downstairs and tried to ignore the conversation going on above her head. She couldn’t make out the words, but the emotions were coming through. They had a big secret and they didn’t trust her. That was a little hurtful. She knew Mike from the AV club. She would hang out there with Mr Clarke for a while after she graduated from middle school. And for a couple of months, she played a teacher’s assistant in club activities. Now Mike was acting like she was a suspicious stranger he met on the street. 

The conversation between boys stopped, and a moment later Steve came down to join Iskra. He picked up his tea and sat at the table across Iskra. 

“So…” He started. Suddenly she felt very tired. Too tired for the tenseness between them.

“Yeah. Here we are. We haven’t spoken for over four years.” For the first time, Iskra tried to look Steve in the eyes, but his were dropped. “You came to me with a bleeding child in the middle of the night, because you didn’t have a choice. It’s fine” He looked up and caught her eyes. She didn’t mean her words, but tried to. “I’m way past being angry at you.” Lies. Looking at him, she was as hurt as ever. “Let’s agree we’re different people from who we were then.”

“Is it?” He asked. Clearly he wanted to believe her. “Fine?”

“It is.” Maybe if she said it enough, it would be, she thought.

“I’m still sorry.” It was quiet and sincere. Iskra’s eyes stung a bit. “I was a little bitch. I couldn’t stand up for a friend. And I didn’t even apologize.”

“Yeah…” The best Iskra could get out was a whisper. She cleared her throat and took a sip of her tea, thankful for the dim lighting in the room. 

“Well, I’m sorry. I really am. And I really am a different person now. I think I changed more than once since then.” He chuckled and sighed, and ran his hands through his hair, making no difference in its state. “Not always for the better. But overall, I hope, y’know?”

There was a pause. They drank their tea. Some of the tension was gone and both of them breathed a little easier. Steve was looking around the house, probably counting things that changed since he was last there. Iskra was looking at Steve, counting the differences in him since she last knew him. He wasn’t the scrawny little kid he used to be. He was a foot taller, his hair wasn’t an untamed mess anymore. His face miraculously stayed both the same and changed completely. He didn’t look like a child anymore. He didn’t look like someone who agrees meekly. 

“Are you really not going to tell me why you’re running around with bleeding children?” She asked. He looked back at her, smiled and shrugged.

“It’s really safer for you if you don’t know.” She shrugged back, too tired to insist.

Then all the light bulbs in the house flashed, and a loud clattering came from Iskra’s bedroom. They both stood abruptly, Steve’s chair falling to the floor. They ran upstairs and stormed into the bedroom. In it most small objects were flying around, books, notebooks, trinkets. A chair crashed into the wall and broke. Jane was panting, flushed, sweat beading on her face. Mike was shaking her shoulder, shouting her name.

“What the ffffuck!” Iskra screamed, ducking from a rogue book. The lights flashed impossibly bright and the overhead light bulb exploded. When they dimmed back, everyone was left blinded. Iskra ran downstairs to the medicine cabinet, half feeling her way, half running on memory. 

“Shit shit shit shit fuck what the fuuuuuuck” She continued, grabbing a syringe of sedative. Once more, she blessed her late mother for keeping the house fully stocked in all kinds of meds. When she was running back upstairs, pictures on the wall flew from their nails and smashed on the walls and ceiling. Light bulbs were exploding all over the house in bright flashes. Iskra ran into the bedroom, where Steve and Mike were trying to wake Jane without jolting her too much. Iskra pushed the smaller boy out of her way and pushed the needle into what she hoped would be a vein. After a few seconds, the house went quiet. Jane’s breathing stabilized, but she was still flushed, now clearly feverish. Steve sighed with relief. Mike fixed his eyes on Jane to make sure she was still breathing. 

“What the hell…” Iskra whispered. She needed to sit down, but the chair was broken. “What the actual hell.” She sat on the floor, and immediately stood back up to get a cold compress for Jane. “How is that even possible…” She whispered, soaking a hand towel with cold water. “What are the god damned chances.” She said, wringing the towel. “This is my fucking luck.” She said, walking to the bedroom. She placed the cloth on Jane’s forehead without saying anything, and walked out of the room. She sat on the top of the stairs, in the near complete darkness. The only lights that survived were a small lamp in the kitchen and the bedside lamp in the bedroom.

After a minute or two, Steve walked out of the bedroom, closing the doors behind him. He sat next to Iskra on the stairs.

“I guess that was the biggest part of the secret, so what the hell.” He said, tensely. 

“Part?” Iskra laughed with a tinge of hysteria. “Jesus Christ, go on.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Iskra means 'spark' so it's hilarious that Steve calls her 'Ice'. It is, believe me.
> 
> I'm a part of 'I wanted to read this, so I had to write it' group now. The premise is unoriginal, I know, but there's really a limited number of ways I could weasel a girl into Steve's life. I don't have a beta (someone save me), I don't normally write, I can't write, but I kind of need to. So this.


	2. chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is just a whole bunch of talking and not much happening. I'm very sorry.

“Part?” Iskra laughed with a tinge of hysteria. “Jesus Christ, go on.”

_____________________________________________________

“When the huge fucker was dead, we all thought it was over. It was all very neat. Jane got a name and everything, the gate to the Upside Down was closed and so was the Lab.” Even though Steve was talking quietly and calmly, after an hour of monologuing his voice was getting husky and strained. Him and Iskra were still sitting on the stairs, their eyes now accustomed to the dark. Iskra was cold and tired, the only heat coming off of Steve. She found it increasingly difficult to follow his story through the haze of exhaustion. “But then last week these little holes started popping up. We thought the Upside Down was empty now, that we killed everything, but then when Jane tried to close the hole some little shitty monster jumped through and slashed her leg, and then escaped.” He sighed and made a gesture toward where Eleven was now peacefully sleeping. “And then is now and I’m done.”

Iskra didn’t speak, just looked at Steve. Hunched over, elbows on his knees, head bowed, hair messed up from running his hands through it too much. He turned his head and his eyes caught some light coming from under the bedroom door. They were serious, shadows under them. In them was only fatigue and hope she would believe him.

“Ok.” She started, “I’m going to say this once and then I’ll believe you. This sounds ridiculous.”

“You think I don…” Iskra raised a hand, stopping his protest.

“I said I’ll believe you. Because of the magic show earlier. And because it explains too much to be made up on the spot. And because it’s safer than not believing you and being ripped to shreds by some, I don’t know, rabid dog.”

Steve stood up, and, irritated, paced the width of the stairs. He turned to Iskra.

“It’s not a dog.”

“Ok.” He threw his hand up, seeing how she didn’t believe it.

“It’s not! Its face opens up like “ Steve did a little jazz hands around his face and hissed. 

“Right.” She said, more amused than alarmed. He sighed with resignation. 

“Well maybe it didn’t hiss.” The story was ridiculous, he could deny that. Her choosing to act as if she believed it was good enough for him. As long as she was safe and careful, it was enough.

“Ok, Ice, you should get some sleep. I’m gonna sweep the glass and just, try to straighten things.” Iskra hallucinated Steve saying. It was almost two in the morning and she was exhausted. But then He got up and went to get a broom. She stayed. Then he started sweeping the floor downstairs, randomly, awkwardly, starting with the floor when there were tons of glass on the stairs, the counters and the table. So he was still Steve after all.

“Yeah I’m helping you, you have no idea about cleaning.” Iskra said.

“I’m very responsible and an adult.” She replaced the broom in his hands with a brush and scoop.

“You said that already. Sweep top to bottom, I’ll look for some spare light bulbs.”  
___________________________________________________

After the house was as clean and as functional as they could make it, and Jane was checked up on, Steve and Iskra both fell asleep the instant they stopped moving, Iskra laying down on a couch in the living room, Steve sprawled in an armchair next to it. They slept through Iskra’s dad coming back, through him stumbling drunkenly up the stairs and into his bedroom. They would have slept through Iskra’s alarm, but Mike helpfully brought it over and threw it in Iskra’s face.

“I’m not going to school and leaving El.” He said before she or Steve even comprehended where they were or what time period they were in.

“I’m not your mother.”, “No way you’re cutting, shithead.” Steve and Iskra said at the same time. Steve continued. “I stay with Jane, you go home and go to school and act like a normal asshole thirteen year old.”

“No!” Mike yelled. Iskra regretted letting a damn teenager into her house. She left the boys to fight, sure they wouldn’t wake her father, and went up to see how Jane was doing. She was still asleep, her temperature still a 102F. 

“I kicked him out.” Steve said, coming into the room, “Though I’m pretty sure the shit lied to me about going to school, not that I care, I don’t.” He stood next to Iskra, looking at Jane with worry. He bit his lip and frowned, looking uncertain about what he should do.

“You should go, don’t worry about this.” Steve feigned confidence, then nodded several times, looking Iskra in the eyes for only a brief moment. “I got it, it’s fine.”

This was new to Iskra . The Steve she used to know was a sweet kid, but scared to death of responsibility. That kid would never take on a burden he didn’t know if he could carry. He would definitely never take several children under his protection and risk his life for them. Suddenly, in the morning sun, he was even taller.

“I want to help.” There was a soft, involuntary smile on Iskra’s face, “You can go look for Hopper, since he’s Jane’s guardian. I’ll stay with Jane.” Steve shook his head. Looked at Jane, tapped his foot a couple of times. He was nervous about dragging another person in this whole Upside Down mess, but right now he didn’t see any other option. “I’m the one with medical expertise around here anyway.”

“Ok.” Steve finally caved, “Take care of her. She… likes Eggos, I guess? In case she wakes up, she likes them. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He gave Iskra an awkward wave, gave up halfway through it and just left the room. 

_______________________________________________________

 

After Steve left, Iskra decided to finally clean her bedroom. There was a lot of mess, but aside from the desk chair and lights, nothing was broken. She swept the broken glass and when she entered the kitchen to throw it away, she came upon her dad, drinking coffee at the table. He seemed to have put on new clothes, but that didn’t make him look much better. In the bright morning sunlight coming through the windows the damage grief and alcohol were doing was painfully visible. His eyes were red rimmed and drowning in the dark circles, he didn’t shave or comb his hair, his hands clasped around the mug were shaking slightly. It’s been three years of this, after Iskra’s mother passed away. 

“Did you eat anything yet?” She asked, knowing he didn’t. They were in a circle where she tried to help him, he pushed her away, he tried to get better, she would help, he would fall again. They were both tired of it. 

“Eggs?” A nod. Apparently this wasn’t a talking day. Iskra made some toast and scrambled eggs, left some in the pan in case Jane woke up hungry. They ate in silence, then Iskra’s dad left for work. How he was able to keep his job through getting drunk almost every single night was a mystery to Iskra. She washed the plates and went back up to Eleven. She was still asleep. Her temperature still 102F. 

Iskra sat down in an armchair in her room, now free of broken glass. It was too heavy to have suffered in last night’s incident. The curtains were drawn, but morning sun shone directly at them, and the room was full of soft, dispersed light. Iskra was watching Jane, hoping she would wake up, but instead fell asleep herself.

_____________________________________________________

_Steve went downstairs to say hi to his dad a while ago. Iskra wanted to say hi as well, to be nice. She left the room, but stopped before she reached the stairs, hearing Mr Harrington’s displeased voice._

_“… you already, Stephen, that I don’t want you to be friends with that girl again.” His voice wasn’t raised, but very annoyed. Iskra didn’t understand, why was Steve’s dad saying that? She snuck a little closer, but could only see the back of Steve’s head. “I don’t want some poor, god damn immigrants in my house.” Steve was quiet. He would defend her, right?_

_“What does her father even do? He pushes papers around all day, never accomplishing anything. And her mother? A nurse? Wiping asses and fluffing pillows. Always a parade of good for nothings going through that house, illegal workers, men without health insurance, banking on a charity of a glorified babysitter, I don’t want you in that kind of place. And I don’t want her here. You hear me?” Steve nodded slightly._

_“You don’t need her, you hear me? Just got on a basketball team, you’re going to make new friends, better friends. American friends from good families.” Steve said nothing. Iskra thought about the times he said they couldn’t hang out at his place. How long was his father saying these things about her?_

_“Now go say goodbye, and that will be it for the two of you. Understand?” Steve nodded. “I don’t hear you, Stephen.” Steve turned around, looked at Iskra and shouted:_

_“Get out of my house, you stupid, dirty immigrant!”_

Iskra woke up with a jolt. Up to about two years ago, she used to have this dream a lot. It was always the same, up to the moment where Steve’s dad says he can’t hear him. Then it would take various turns, Russian agents bursting in, Steve’s dad deciding the only was his son won’t keep immigrant friends would be to kill them all. Apparently the return of Steve into her life was a trigger for that particularly unpleasant habit. Iskra looked at the clock, and for the first time noticed it wasn’t working. But the sun has shifted and was now coming in through the south window, so it had to be at least noon. Then she looked at the bed. Jane was still sleeping. Iskra was beginning to worry, the girl was asleep now for almost twelve hours. But she lost a lot of blood, and who knows what effect the telekinetic show last night had on Eleven’s body. Iskra reached for a thermometer to check her fever again, when the doorbell rang. 

When Iskra was walking down the stairs, a thought popped into her head, that this could not be a pleasant visit, if Jane was being searched for by the Government. It was too late though, the stairs were facing a window next to the entrance doors, and the person outside already spotted her. Or rather, people outside. They weren’t agents though, just more AV club members, and a redhead girl. 

“C’mon, open the door!!” Mike yelled outside.

“Shut up, dipshit!” Steve was there, too.

“Ow! Stop acting like you’re some kind…” Iskra opened the door, and Mike was instantly on a different train of thought, “How’s El? El! Let me in.” He pushed his was past Iskra and ran up the stairs. She looked at Steve, remembering the dream. Iskra realized the Steve in her dream was this one, not the thirteen year old one. She grimaced, that was a nice addition her brain made.

“You ok?” Steve asked, “Sorry for bringing the whole asswipe community to your house.”

“It’s fine. Come in, asswipe community.” She turned around and headed for the kitchen. Behind her, a shower of insults rained on Steve for the asswipe comment. After a moment, everyone settled in the kitchen and the kettle was on again. Iskra knew most of the kids, she met Lucas and Dustin in the AV club. The red head introduced herself as Max Hargrove. 

“Why does Hargrove sound familiar?” Iskra asked.

“My asshole stepbrother, Billy, goes to high school here.” She remembered. The new guy, hot but a dick. Stepbrother. That sounded right, they looked nothing alike.

“El is still asleep.” Mike barged in, “Is that ok? Is she fine? She still has a fever. Was she awake at all?” 

“I don’t know…” Iskra started.

“What do you mean you don’t know?! What are you here for?!”

“Hey asshole.” Steve got in Mike’s face. The boy was only a couple inches shorter, but half the weight, “It’s her house and she’s not a doctor, so lay off.” Iskra puffed a little laugh.

“Thanks, my dear knight, my protector.” She said. Steve rolled his eyes with a half smile.

“This is all very nice.” Lucas said loudly, “But we can’t find Hopper and we still have a demodog situation. We need a plan.” Everyone quieted. With the exception of Iskra, everyone knew what even a single one of these monsters could do. This was serious.

“I may have one.” All eyes turned to Dustin, “We will need a shitload of gasoline.” Steve threw up his arms. He suspected this would once again turn out great for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took like 4 times longer than I thought it would. This writing thing, oh boy, it's good fun, but gosh, golly, is it hard.  
> Again, no beta, save me


	3. chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I wanna slap myself for how much talking is in these first chapters, but I really can't see a way around it. I promise the next one is going to be all things happening.

“I may have one.” All eyes turned to Dustin, “We will need a shitload of gasoline.” Steve threw up his arms. He suspected this would once again turn out great for him.

“Why does it always has to be a shitload of gasoline?” He asked miserably.

“Because I like to watch the world burn, Stevie. Why do you think?” Dustin sassed. 

“Dustin’s right.” Mike finally focused on something other than Jane, “Creatures from the Upside Down are vulnerable to fire, so we have to launch a fire attack.” 

Iskra bit her lip. She couldn’t decide whether it was necessary for her to reveal her secret yet. Steve noticed her distressed demeanour and nudged her with his shoulder. He gave a reassuring little smile. That didn’t help Iskra with the decision process, but she forced herself to return the smile.

“That sounds great, but how are we going to get the demodog to stay still while we barbeque his ass?” Lucas was the voice of reason.

“They’re not exactly slow. Or weak.” Max added. They seemed to be on the same page.

“If you all shut up and let me talk, I’ll exp…” A doorbell interrupted him, “Son of a bitch. Let them in? It has to be Will with the Chief.” Mike let them in but instead of Chief Hopper, Will brought Jonathan. The small kitchen was now completely, ridiculously packed. Will explained that he went to the police station, and found out Chief Hopper took a week off work with no explanation. 

“So we should wait. Without Hopper or Jane, we can’t kill that monster.” Steve pointed out, not wrong.

“We can’t wait! Somebody might get hurt if we do nothing!” Mike responded.

“Everybody shut up!” Dustin yelled, “I have! A! Plan! It will work! So just, shut up!” He took out of his pocked a piece of paper, and unfolded it. It was a sketch of a house from the bird’s view.

“Near the forest, there’s this abandoned lodge, or something. It has a tornado basement. There are two entrances to it: one from the outside, one from the inside. We can have someone lure it through the outside entrance, then run up and out through the inside one. Another person will lock the first door, and voila! A captured, ready to be smoked monster.” Dustin finished, satisfied.

“That’s the same plan we had with the bus!” Lucas yelled.

“It’s not! It’s not though, because it’s way better.”

“What if the demodog goes after the person who’s supposed to close the outside hatch?” Max asked.

“What if there’s more than one demodog again?!” Lucas piled on.

“No, no, listen, the plan works. The other person hides inside, demodogs are blind, they go after blood and sound.” Dustin turned to Lucas, “And if there’s more than one… which, why would there even be more, the Mind Flayer is dead, but then it just goes inside like the first one. Follows the bait.”

“Yeah, I can guess who the bait is.” Steve bitched, “You guys just really like trying to get me killed.”

“If you’re so scared, I’ll be the bait.” Mike declared confidently.

“Yeah, fuck no to that.” Steve snapped back. He looked at Dustin, “The plan goes, we can’t wait a week and it’s all we have.” Dustin beamed at him.

“Will’s not coming.” Jonathan chimed in for the first time, “Mom would kill me.” Will was starting to protest, but then Steve took back over.

“Not only Will. None of you shitheads are coming. This is a tight operation, not a field trip. Max four people are going”

“I’m coming.” Iskra said. The boys all started protesting. She didn’t want to say the actual reason why she wanted to go, so she went with the second best, and pulled out a gun. Weirdly, that made the room quiet. Except for Steve.

“What the hell is that?!” 

“A Colt M1911A.” Iskra said, casually checking the magazine for bullets. It was full.

“Why the hell… how… where was it?!”

“Taped under the table.”

“Why?!!” Watching Steve freak out was delightful. Iskra shrugged with a crooked smile.

“I’m Russian, y’know?” The answer was a just a groan followed by Steve trying to rip out his hair.

“Are you a spy?” Dustin asked weakly. Iskra chuckled. This was fun.

“That’s a silly question to ask a potential spy.” She looked around the room, “So I’m coming.” That didn’t jump start the conversation. There was another couple of moments of silence, before finally Jonathan shook off the shock.

“That makes three. We should take Dustin, I don’t know where that place is.” Most eyes turned to him, except for Steve, who was still looking at Iskra, with a somewhat betrayed look. “Steve, do you know where it is?” Jonathan asked. “Steve?”

“Yeah, I think so.” He answered, distracted, still looking at Iskra. She pretended not to notice and went to grab a spare magazine from a kitchen drawer. For the first time in her life she thought it might be weird to keep bullets in a kitchen drawer.

“The basement hatch is on the left from the porch.” Dustin was trying to make sure he and Steve were talking about the same place, “It’s tiny, two windows on each side of the entrance door? The inside stairs to the basement are in the back, behind the bathroom?”

“Yeah… what?” Steve finally took his eyes off of Iskra and turned to Dustin, “I don’t know where the stairs to the basement are, I wasn’t trying to buy the place. But it’s like a mile south from the quarry.”

“That’s the place.” Dustin snapped his fingers. “Start laying bait near Hoppers, where the demogod was last seen, and we’ll drench the basement and get some reinforcement for the hatches.”

With the plan finally in place, everyone broke to do their tasks. It was already half past two pm, and in February it would start getting dark by five. Mike stayed with Jane. Will, Lucas, and Max went to the Byers house to continue figuring out where Chief Hopper could be. Dustin and Jonathan rode off to the nearest gas station. Steve and Iskra were walking to the car, when Iskra turned around and went back into the house. A minute later, she came out, carrying an axe. 

“An axe, Ice? Seriously?” 

“Well, from what you said, a gun did fuck all to the Demogorgon.” Iskra explained, “And I don’t have a baseball bat.”

“Good. The bat is my thing.”

“Right.” Iskra huffed a laugh, “Wouldn’t wanna steal your style.”

“Yeah you don’t.” Steve gave Iskra a once-over, and raised a brow, “You could pull it off though.” 

“Shut up.” She said, suddenly embarrassed. Steve laughed loudly. In the quiet, freezing air it sounded magnificent, and for a second Iskra couldn’t believe in monsters. She stared, and he caught her eyes, still smiling widely. All of the sudden she wished for monsters, just so they could fight them together. 

___________________________________________________________________________________

“Did you see the look on that cashier’s face?” Iskra asked. She and Steve were walking through the forest, dropping meat as they went. 

“Can you blame her?” They were each carrying a bucket full of minced meat and organ meat. Frankly, it was disgusting, and Iskra was thankful for the gloves. Steve’s idea.

“Not even a little bit. I literally can’t think of a sane reason for buying all this shit.” The woods weren’t dark yet, but the sun was setting slowly. It filled the forest with long, slim shadows and bright strands of lights. There was no snow, but the leafs under their feet were frozen and crackling under their feet. 

“This feels nostalgic.” Steve sighed, “Do you need some advice on girls?”

“Pardon me?” 

“Last time I was doing the same shit with Dustin. You know, throwing meat around the forest to get a monster to attack us. He had a crush on Max. The redhead.”

“Isn’t she with Lucas? They were basically finishing each other’s…”

“Sentences, yeah.” Steve grinned at Iskra. She rolled her eyes. “They are, but it was complicated for a while. I gave him advice.”

“Yeah? What did you tell him?” 

“I don’t know if I should tell you. They are trade secrets, after all.” Steve looked at Iskra from the corner of his eye, pretending to consider whether he should talk. She played along, looking at him with begging eyes. “Ok. I told him he just needed to pretend, like he doesn’t care.”

“Pretend he doesn’t care.” Iskra repeated flatly.

“Yeah, it makes girls go crazy.”

“Jesus fuck, Steve.” She shook her head at him.

“What? It works!”

“Yeah, on desperate girls who already like you!” Steve was pouting, but Iskra decided he needed to know, for his own good, “Did that work for Nancy?”

“Nancy was different.”

“No she wasn’t. She just wasn’t impressed with the King Steve persona. If you ignore a girl who isn’t already into you, she isn’t even going to notice, or she’ll think you don’t like her and move on.” Steve didn’t respond right away, just kept throwing meat.

“So you’re saying I gave his terrible advice.”

“Literally a what not to do. Sorry.” He was visibly distraught, and Iskra felt bad for him. She also thought it was sweet he was so upset about giving bad advice.

“I also told him to wait until he can feel the electricity and make a move, was that shit too?”

“Nah, that was solid.” Steve looked a little relieved. “Hey, nobody is always right. And that kid looks at you like a hero. They all do.” He perked up a little, grumbling a little about how the shitheads better do that, since he’s here saving their asses.

They were slowly getting close to the lodge, the sun now only shining on the tops of the trees, when they heard a screeching howl. It flooded Iskra with fear. She looked at Steve, expecting the same emotion, but he looked focused and confident.

“How far do you think this was?” Iskra asked. Steve turned to her, opening his mouth, when another howl pierced the air. He dropped his bucket of meat and grabbed Iskra’s hand.

“Farther than this one.” He started running towards the lodge, pulling her along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writing this is really so much fun, and I don't even care nobody's reading it (ye I do but i just started writing so what do i expect). Also the amount of time I spend looking for the specific model of the gun really doesn't pay off, but I needed to do it.
> 
> BTW if anyone wonders what the lodge looks like I drew it (plotholes are my mortal enemy i've said it a 100times)  
> [](https://ibb.co/gOTUc6)


	4. chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's finally some action in this one. Don't worry though, not too much.

“Farther than this one.” He started running towards the lodge, pulling her along.

Both of them dropped their meat buckets, hoping it would buy them a little time. Sprinting through the rapidly darkening forest, Iskra’s mind became strangely quiet. She thought about doing laps in the swimming pool. If she had to compare swimming to running away from a monster while carrying an axe, she would choose butterfly. A flashy, but not sustainable activity.

“C’mon, we’re close!” Steve’s shout called Iskra back to reality. 

“Steve, listen!” Iskra didn’t wait for a reply, “When we’re inside the cellar, you have go out first!”

“What?!” Steve looked back at her for a split second, “No fucking way.” Another howl, even louder, even closer.

“I have a gun and I know how to use it.” She should have talked to him about that before.

“I fought these things before!” There was no hope of persuading Steve now, Iskra realized. They could see the house now, stood in the middle of a little clearing. Iskra briefly noticed Jonathan’s car parked out front. Before them, the storm cellar hatch was wide open. “Just… trust me.” Steve’s voice was tense and determined. Also, the time for arguing was over. Over the sound of their own panting and the leafs and twigs breaking under their feet, Iskra and Steve could now hear approaching growling. Both aware that looking back would be a giant mistake, they just ran faster.

Steve was the first one to run down the stairs to the cellar. The inside was completely dark, except for the light coming down the steps from the outside and the much fainter light from the inside hatch. The smell of gasoline was thick, making Iskra’s head spin with a single inhale.

“Out!!” Steve screamed at Iskra, turning back towards the stairs they just came down. The demodog chasing them took a leap down, and Steve swung. He hit the monster square on its head, and send it to the far corner of the basement. Iskra listened, and by the time the dog hit a wall she was already on the stairs. There she paused to look at Steve. He looked wild, bat in hand, hair wild, eyes wide. 

“Run run run!” Steve yelled, sprinting towards the stairs. They were barely wide enough for one person, so Iskra was forced to go first. Next thing she new, she was inside the cabin, Steve almost at the top of the stairs, and a demodog flying, with its head open like a flower full of shark teeth, towards his leg. Fear and anger rose inside Iskra, and, stripped of all hesitation, with one thought, she made the beast explode in flames. Shrieking with pain, the monster missed Steve’s ankle by less than an inch, and fell down the steps, where all the gasoline spilled in the cellar exploded into flames.

Steve shut the hatch with a loud bang. It was fitted with a hasp, and an open padlock, probably left there by Dustin or Jonathan. Steve reached to close it, when the hatch jumped from the force of the demodog trying to get out. Steve threw his entire weight on the hatch, and Iskra reached to lock the padlock. Over the sound of it locking, they heard another, shriller, scream. 

“Dustin!!” Steve yelled. He jumped up, almost falling over himself, and rushed to the door, his bat forgotten. Before he got to the door, there was a yelp of pain, and a bang of metal doors being shut.

Iskra ran after Steve. Outside, Dustin was holding a fire extinguisher. On the ground, Jonathan was holding his shoulder. Steve rushed to Dustin, grabbed him and looked into his face to make sure the boy was fine.

“I’m good, I’m whole, worry about Jonathan.” Dustin waved him off.

“You ok?” Steve obliged, turning to Jonathan, who nodded, still holding his shoulder. He was obviously in pain. Iskra kneeled next to him to take a look.

“Are you bleeding badly?” She asked. Jonathan shook his head and stood up. He was still holding the wound and was still wearing a face of pain.

“We should get away from here. The house is likely to catch on fire.” He spoke, voice strained but firm. Steve looked worried.

“Should we call the fire department?” He asked. Iskra looked at the trees around, the lodge.

“There is no wind and the trees are a bit away from the house.” Steve looked unconvinced. “Also what we did is quite clearly arson and I don’t exactly fancy a jail time.” To that, he nodded. All four of them got in the car. Steve driving, Dustin shotgun, Jonathan and Iskra in the back seat. 

Steve turned the engine on, and then off immediately. 

“Gimme a second!” He ran out of the car and into the building, now rather visibly catching on fire. A couple seconds later he ran back out, holding his baseball bat, and got into the car. 

“You…” Iskra began, incredulous, as Steve turned the engine on and started driving. “You just literally… ran into a burning building to save a fucking baseball bat.” He shrugged.

“It has sentimental value. By the way, are we going to yours to take care of Jonathan?” 

“We’re not just dropping the subject of you being a huge dickhead moron, Stephen.” Steve grimaced.

“Don’t call me that.”

“Yes, we’re going back to mine, Mr. dickhead moron.” Iskra was well aware, that he had no problem with neither dickhead nor moron. Stephen was what his father called him.

“Hey, Henderson, what even happened back there?” Dustin was quiet up until then. It was a little weird. Hearing him not talk.

“There was a second one.” He choked out. He looked down on his hands. “Lucas was right. There was more than one and my plan was shit.” There was silence. Iskra wanted to prostest, but felt that the only person who, at the moment, can console Dustin was Jonathan. She nudged him.

“Y… yeah, no,” He started awkwardly. “The plan worked, we got them.”

“You’re hurt. That wasn’t a part of the plan.” Dustin mumbled. Iskra never saw him like that. She never saw him anything less than infectiously energetic. But she only ever met him in the AV club setting.

“But you saved me.” Jonathan continued, “You got him with the extinguisher and into the hole.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Steve joined in, “You made the plan work. Thinking on your feet.” He reached over to ruffle the boy’s hair. “And Jonathan’s gonna be fine, we have our own doctor.” Steve waved his hand vaguely in Iskra’s direction. 

“I’m a healer, you uninformed twat.” She replied. That got Dustin to smile at least.

“Why you gotta attack me like this?” Steve picked up on the banter.

“Because you’re in love with your baseball bat, dipshit. Compensating much?” Dustin snorted. 

“You brought an axe and a gun and didn’t use either, you redundant dicksplash.”

“Fuck off.”

“Creative.” Steve quipped. Now this was unacceptable. Iskra took a deep breath.

“Thou hath more hair than wit, and more faults than hairs, and more sores than faults, ye foul spoken coward, that thund'rest with thy tongue, and with thy weapon nothing dares perform.”

“What the fuck?” Steve was confused. Dustin was giggling. Jonathan chuckled.

“Shakespear, bitch. And safety redundancies are just good practice.”

“Speaking of which,” Dustin started. The little performance seemed to cheer him up. “We were supposed to set off the fire, but you did?” Here was the question Iskra was dreading. She did set it off, but not in a way she was prepared to admit. I set it off with my mind, Steve, can we not talk about it? That probably wouldn’t fly.

“I didn’t.” Steve said. “Ice, you did?”

“Yeah.” She hoped he wouldn’t pry.

“I didn’t see you do that.”

“Well, I did. Safety redundancies, remembrer?” Lucky for her, Steve had a great deal of trust in her preparedness. Also they were already on Iskra’s street. As they neared her house, there noticed a car in the driveway.

“That’s Nancy’s car.” Steve said, his voice very even and neutral.

“Shit, she’s going to kill me.” Jonathan sat up, forgetting about his arm for a second.

“Great.” Iskra mumbled, “More yelling people in my freaking house.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> These are getting shorter and shorter.  
> I can't write action (or write (shhh don't undermine yourself(I'll do what I want)))
> 
> I love shakespear cause I'm basic
> 
>  
> 
> [](https://ibb.co/kF4ex6)  
>   
> [zdjęcia na allegro](https://pl.imgbb.com/)  
> this is what i did instead of writing (ehhhh)  
> (edit: it's Iskra's house but not during the action, this is like when trees have leafs cause drawing bare trees is unimaginable pain)


	5. chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> they all talk again, who knew

“Great.” Iskra mumbled, “More yelling people in my freaking house.”

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

Everyone got yelled at by Nancy. Fortunately, Max, Lucas and Will got theirs at the Byers and weren’t even here. Mike and Jane got a pass for being unconscious and too busy worrying about the unconscious. 

“Honestly, haven’t we been through enough together?” Jonathan had his head down. Iskra was pretending his arm and her were completely separate from the scene. She didn’t want to jostle Jonathan, and his jacket was ruined anyway, so she cut him out of it. The wound didn’t look too serious at first glance. A dozen or so small punctures and four slightly larger ones. It looked like the demodog sunk his teeth into Jonathan’s skin, but had no chance to rip it. Iskra wondered if there were space rabies. Or not space exactly. Upside Down rabies.

“What would you have done, Nance?” Steve decided to make a mistake of butting into the conversation. Nancy turned to him, eyes blazing.

“Maybe I would have come up with a better plan, and my boyfriend wouldn’t be a pin cushion!” Iskra grimaced. Her eyes were fixed on her hands, doing their best to clean out each and every puncture, but she could still guess the flash of hurt in Steve’s eyes from the two second too long silence after that. The breakup was the topic of conversation in Hawkins High for weeks, and even if Iskra and Steve weren’t friends at the time, she could see how much he was hurt and that he still wasn’t over it.

“Like what?” He asked, hands on hips. “What plan, Nancy? All the benefits of hindsight, what better plan would you have come up with?” For that Iskra raised her head to look at her. Nancy opened her mouth, and closed it again. 

“I don’t know. But at least I could have come with you.” Steve threw his hands up. 

“How would that be any better?! What, you would be bitten and not Jonathan?!”

“Why did you even go at all?! When Jane is sick and Hopper isn’t around!” The thing escalated to screaming quite quickly. Iskra wondered if Jonathan kept his mouth shut because he wasn’t an idiot and didn’t want to get in the middle of an argument, or he was just in too much pain to care about the drama.

“Yeah?! You would just wait while there are monsters living in the forest?!” The four of them were in a tiny bathroom, and Iskra wanted to tell them to piss off and yell at each other somewhere else.

“At least Jonathan wouldn’t be hurt!”

“Do you even hear yourself?! And what when an innocent bystander gets hurt?! Last time you blamed me for a year and I didn’t even know about it!!”

“Steve, stop.” Jonathan finally spoke. Too late. Nancy already stormed out of the bathroom, slamming the door behind her. Steve’s chest was heaving, eyes bright with anger. He was trying to pace, but the room was too small. Jonathan started to get up to follow after his girlfriend. Iskra grabbed him by the shirt and yanked down.

“You’re not going anywhere before I drench all your exposed flesh in alcohol.”

“You need to go and apologize to her.” Jonathan said. 

“Like hell I’m apologizing for the truth.” Steve crossed his arms.

“She never blamed you.”

“Now that’s bullshit.” Steve huffed and stomped out, leaving the door open. Jonathan sighed.

“Think he went to talk to Nancy?”

“Honestly who knows. Steve’s the type to apologize for someone else’s screw up.” It’s not that Iskra thought Nancy was the bad guy. But there was no doubt she hurt Steve, and that was a no-no. Especially now they were friends again.

____________________________________________________________________________________________

 

After finishing bandaging up Jonathan Iskra went to see Jane. Mike and Nancy were in the room with her, Mike sitting in an armchair, which he dragged closer to the bed, Nancy leaning on a windowsill and looking outside.

“Did she wake up at all?” Iskra asked Mike. She assumed he just spend the whole day next to the bed.

“Yeah, she asked for some water earlier.” He answered. Iskra looked at him closer. He looked tired, but less worried. She could see why. Jane’s temperature dropped to a 100F and her skin lost the feverish flush. Iskra changer her bandages and inspected the stitches. They seemed fine, the skin around them normal.

“How are you a part of this now?” Nancy suddenly pushed herself off the windowsill and approached Iskra. She still looked angry, her eyes a little red. “Why the hell would Steve come to you for help first?”

“I mean, we were friends.” Iskra replied, confused. Was it so weird that Steve would go to an old friend for help? Even if Nancy didn’t know that her mom was a nurse?

“When? I never saw you two together.” Finally Iskra understood. It’s not that Nancy didn’t think Steve would come to a friend for help. She didn’t know they were ever friends. Being a couple for a year, Steve never mentioned the girl he was hanging out with almost every day since they were five until they were thirteen. Iskra stood there for a while, she didn’t know how long, trying to convince herself that didn’t hurt. 

“Is that really the most important thing right now?” Mike was the one to finally speak, “We should be figuring out where Hopper is. Or why that portal opened.”

“First I need to take Will home, before mom goes insane again.” Jonathan appeared in the doorway, in his T-shirt, stained with blood, sleeve cut off, left arm in a makeshift sling Iskra made. 

“We should take Jane home, if Hopper’s not in town.” Mike added. Iskra couldn’t say this was a bad idea. She was exhausted and she wanted her bed back.

“And stash her where?” Jonathan shook his head. “She can stay with us.” 

It turned out a lot of people needed to be moved around. Steve’s car was back at the quarry, Lucas’s bike was at the Byers with Max’s skateboard, Jonathan couldn’t drive, Jane needed space to lay down. Dustin found a piece of paper and started drawing routes like he was planning a campaign, while Max made fun of him for being anal.

Steve came up to Iskra, standing in the corner, observing all those people she barely knew interacting in her kitchen.

“So, um.” He started, rubbing the back of his neck nervously, “I guess, sorry for getting you into this mess.” She shook her head.

“Actually, and this is terrible, considering people are hurt, I had fun.” Steve looked surprised and Iskra grinned at him, “If you have more monsters to hunt in the future, hit me up.” He gave a small laugh.

“That sounds fucking insane.” They looked at each other, smiling. Steve’s eyes warm, and for a moment he didn’t look tired, or angry, or worried. Iskra wondered if her face looked the same way.

“Hey, Montana.” Dustin smacked Steve in the head with his hat, “Go carry El to the car.”

“Right.” Steve responded, somewhat absentmindedly, “Hey, that’s football.”

“I’m getting closer.” Dustin shrugged. 

Eventually, everyone got into their designated car on their designated bicycle and Iskra was alone in her home at last. She was tired. Too tired to worry about school she missed, too tired to process that today she helped kill not one, but two interdimentional monsters, too tired to process there were apparently girls like her, with supernatural powers, around. Too tired to wonder about how much of a coincidence it was there were two of them in the same small town. Too tired to be angry at Steve that their friendship meant so little that the girl he was with for a year didn’t know her name, and too tired to wonder why that made her so angry. So she slept.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i didn't write a word for almost two weeks and so i struggled so hard to write this. but here it is. most likely even worse than usual. 
> 
> (i'm sorry i made nancy a bit of a bitch, she's stressed, ok? and she hurt my boy so this is revenge.)  
> (also i kind of want to write her and steve talking in the car on their way to the quarrey? like they have some things to talk about right? but the story is pov of iskra so i don't know. maybe)

**Author's Note:**

> Iskra means 'spark' so it's hilarious that Steve calls her 'Ice'. It is, believe me.
> 
> I'm a part of 'I wanted to read this, so I had to write it' group now. The premise is unoriginal, I know, but there's really a limited number of ways I could weasel a girl into Steve's life. I don't have a beta (someone save me), I don't normally write, I can't write, but I kind of need to. So this.


End file.
